This is going to be the first part in a series of editorials I'm writing dubbed "The Think Tank". In these pieces I'm going to be exploring the current state of EVE Online and some changes I think would improve the EVE experience for its players. Most of the subjects I tackle will be major and interrelated. As you read these posts, bear in mind that these are opinion pieces, and as such will not be completely free from my personal biases. Ultimately, what I care about is the health of EVE Online and the experience we all have while playing it.

There's an activity in EVE which a few love but many bear doing in the same way they bear household chores or their job: Mining. Industry saw a major overhaul with Crius, and while reprocessing and compression were changed, mining itself has been mostly untouched. I feel there is a lot of room for improvement with mining. I will be operating from two basic premises in this piece. If you feel I'm wrong about either of these premises, please feel free to let me know.

Premise One: Mining in general is a boring and dull activity, especially in "safe" areas.

Premise Two: For the level of risk involved, HiSec mining is leagues more profitable than in LowSec or NullSec.

From these two premises, I draw two conclusions:

Conclusion One: Mining needs more polish and content.

Conclusion Two: The risk:reward ratio of mining needs to be altered, making it more rewarding to do in dangerous areas.

The goals are to make mining more interesting and dynamic to engage players in this activity rather than the current iteration; CTRL-click, F1-F2, ALT-TAB. The amount of ISK/hr should also scale with the amount of effort players are willing to invest and the risks they're willing to take. CCP is on the right track with the Crius changes, but there are still a few more things that need to be done.

Polishing the Rocks

Currently ore belts in EVE Online are fairly vanilla, fairly plain, and fairly boring. Even many of the ores themselves look lackluster, with the exception of a few. Belts are very disengaging for the player warp to the belt, maybe move a few kilometers, then set up your mining lasers and alt-tab to Netflix.

EVE Online is a beautiful game, and CCP is constantly upgrading their graphics. Mining could use some love. Imagine if the ore sites that spawned around gas giants gave the player the feeling that they were mining the rings of that planet. Imagine if "Asteroid Fields" spawned between planets instead of around, and gave the impression that the miner was in a cloud of rocks. Imagine if materially dense rocks (the high-yield variants) spawned closer to the sun, and the lighter rocks appeared on the fringes of the solar system. Imagine if some ore belts were tilted the way ice belts used to be. There are a wide range of possibilities CCP can release and I would love to see them do this. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life, and a common complaint from moderately experiences newbies is that "every system is the same". This would help alleviate those feelings.

I would also like to see the contents of belts themselves updated. There are a variety of rocky objects in EVE Online, but we never see them in asteroid belts, and rarely do they appear in spawned ore sites; things like cloven asteroids, shattered asteroids, and barren rocks. Ideally these should make up a large portion of the objects on grid, with the useful ores mixed therein. There should be debris clouds and dust fields, and wrecks of derelict vessels.

"Running on Empty" in Empire

In EVE lore it is stated that demand for ore has outstripped supply. Empyreans have been eating resources at an unprecedented rate. Just a single carrier or dreadnaught represents hundreds of man hours of mining and a volume of ore mined greater than the ship itself. And this isn't taking into account supercapital proliferation. There is a massive demand for materials. In just one week in May 2014, more than 28.8 billion cubic meters of ore was mined in the entire New Eden cluster. A solo miner might take 20 years to do this, but all of New Eden accomplished this in just 7 days. In case numbers are a little abstract for you, I'll put it this way: At the rate Capsuleers are mining, they would deplete both Earth's moon and the entire asteroid belt in just a little over 2 years. This is just counting player Capsuleers; if we consider baseline NPC miners and NPC Capsuleer miners, then in no uncertain terms this should represent an environmental catastrophe.

Of course, even with Capsuleers and empires gobbling up every rock they can find, resources in EVE Online the game are infinite, limited only by daily spawns (of which there is more than enough) and the amount of time miners willing to spend mining (which also, it seems, is limitless). Since Veldspar is infinite, it actually has no inherent value. You are not actually exchanging ISK for Tritanium, but rather ISK for the time and effort the miner spent gathering it.The time is dirt cheap because most of that time the player was alt-tabbed to either another account or something unrelated to EVE. The effort is dirt cheap because virtually none is required.

Since most mining takes place in HiSec, the first change I would propose would be to reduce the amount of harvestable ore in all HiSec systems, with the most reduction taking place in 1.0 through 0.7 space. In many belts replace the ore with barren asteroids and debris fields with just a smattering of small ores throughout. Reduce the volume of remaining ores even in untouched belts. Players would have to scout for good locations instead of just jumping into any system and warping to top belt.

The availability of ore should also depend on player activity. EVE is, after all, player generated, right? Put responsibility in the hands of the players. The respawn cycle of ores, at least in HiSec, should depend on how much people are mining in HiSec. I propose a daily system that regenerates (x)m3 of each ore each day, as long as the amount of m3 mined per day in that system is above a certain threshold. Once that threshold is crossed, the mount of m3 regenerated per day will decrease. When ore is not mined, the amount of m3 regenerated increases. And all of it on a sliding scale. Each system should function independently from every other system, meaning miners can't just migrate HiSec in a circuit to always have the best spawn.

I also propose restricting ores by security status as follows, since Capsuleers and Empires have mined space dry (else why would Capsuleers want to build new Stargates?):

1.0: Only Veldspars

0.9 - 0.7: Only Veldspars and Scordites

0.6 - 0.5: All available HiSec ores.

Prospecting

Exploration is one component of EVE that is both engaging and interesting. I personally feel that exploration should be an important part of any playstyle. We all do some level of exploration in EVE. But I think this can be expanded upon.

Currently ore sites appear in the discovery scanner. The community is divided on whether or not this is a good thing, but I personally feel it was a good change, and I mine in WormHole space. However I do think there should be a bit more cat-and-mouse to finding juicy ore sites, and for those who prey on miners. CCP could add some ore sites that must be probed down, perhaps some systems would even have lucrative "hidden belts" that would require a bookmark and are hard to probe done without good skills and equipment.

Another idea I've been toying with is the idea of "rogue asteroids". These sites would show up as "Rogue Asteroid" of varying sizes; large, huge, and massive. A "Large Rogue Veldspar" might contain 500k ore. A "Huge Rogue Veldspar" might contain one million unites and a "Massive Rogue Veldspar" may even hold multiple millions. In a HiSec at least, where ores would be scarce, an anomaly containing a single rock with a million units of ore (depending on the type of ore) would be an enticing find. In dangerous space, not being immediately warpable would make these sites important.

Dare to Be Bold, Pilot

One EVE trailer that I watched years ago had the motto "dare to be bold, pilot". The entire game has traditionally been based around risk:reward, and indeed the highest bounties and the rarest ores are found in the most dangerous places. With Crius, the best manufacturing is now found in dangerous parts of space. However, 70% of players live in HiSec according to CCP. It stands to reason that most mining takes place in the relative safety of HiSec, too. But if all the best ores are in Null, why is this? The answer is simple

First, there is a high demand for lower end minerals such as Tritanium, which is found in the highest amount in Veldspar and can easily be mined uninterrupted in the relative safety of HiSec and jumped, via compression, to Null.

There is a bottle neck for minerals which are found in the greatest abundance in HiSec.

The rewards for mining in NullSec are not big enough to entice miners out of HiSec.

The first step is to balance risk:reward between HiSec and less secure areas of space. Is there some rule that low end ores, such as Veldspar, have to be the best sources of low end minerals? HiSec is currently the source of 5 of the 7 major minerals. Perhaps HiSec should only be the source of Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon?

Perhaps as you move into LowSec, the ores contain more of these three minerals per batch, but higher end minerals start appearing. The best, of course, would be found in NullSec.

But it's a SANDBOX, Xui!

A lot of people will disagree with my changes concerning rebalance. Most will say that I'm breaking "the sandbox". I posit that these players do not understand the concept of a sandbox MMO. Being a sandbox, especially a sandbox based on the concept of risk:reward, does not obviate the need for balanced play. In fact, balanced play is more necessary for a sandbox MMO, as unbalanced play shatters the game.

I don't propose changes to HiSec mining as a way to nerf it and "force" people into other areas of EVE, although I do think it would be immensely beneficial to the game if more players considered playstyles that included operating in dangerous areas of space. More people in dangerous areas of space means more targets, and more targets means more PvP and content in general. This can only be accomplished if risk:reward is balanced in all areas of space. And every aspect of the game, even something as elemental as mining, should be interesting. While "nerfs" to HiSec mining might encourage people to venture into other areas of space, at the very least, players willing to take risks should be rewarded, and mining itself should be engaging and interesting for people who decide to pursue that path.

In conclusion, the changes I propose:

Add a new celestial to Overview: "Asteroid Field". These new fields would spawn in locations between the orbital paths of two planets in a system, representing the warpable location of a stellar asteroid belt (as opposed to a planetary asteroid belt).

Add a new scannable ore site, called "Rogue Asteroids", which contain a single rock with unusually high volume.

Revamp the layouts of asteroid belts and make them larger by adding objects such as "Barren Rock", and "Shattered Blue-Crystal Asteroid".

Reduce the overall availability of ores in HiSec, via removal of harvest-able belts and reduction of ore volumes, and restrict their spawns by security status.

Reduce the amount of Noxcium and Isogen that HiSec ores contain.

The amount of all minerals found in local ores scale upward with the lawlessness of the space in which they are found.

At least in HiSec, change asteroid respawns to a sliding scale that would be affected by activity levels.

I think the above changes would make mining more interesting, more engaging, and more balanced. What do you think?

]]>Tue, 19 Aug 2014 06:48:46 +0000http://sett.com/podborn/uid/470049How to live in a wormhole after playing EVE for a week. [Fixed] by Kirakhttp://sett.com/podborn/uid/465872
Note from Kirak:

This story took place a few months ago, in march. My friends and I (4 in total) had started up a small corporation to play around in. Our fleet was composed of a Maelstrom that I flew, with T1 Guns and no Damage Control (since I couldn't fit them at the time), a Myrmidon droneboat, an exploration corax for finding wormholes and sites within, and an amarr ship that I can't recall (most likely a frigate). I bought a PLEX and sold it for about 650m, and used some of the isk to buy us a small amarr POS, fuel, personal hangar, 3 silos, and 2 small guns (forgot ammo lol). Our corax scanned a hole down next to our "staging system" (a tradepost) so I reshipped to a hurricane to go scout it out with everyone else, since my maelstrom was slow (not that a cane isn't, but.. still). We didn't see anyone, so we looked around, and found a ghost site. We warped to it and let our corax do his job.. however.. he failed his hack and the explosion destroyed his ship instantly. (I don't have a killmail for this, it doesn't show up on zkillboard). After the can exploded, we all sat there in silence for a moment pondering what just happened, until the rats warped in. The rest of my fleet managaed to warp out but the rats scrammed me before I could align. My entire life with my cane flashed before my eyes, and as I watched my ship enter structure, I kissed her goodbye and waited for my capsule to eject... only.. it never happened.The rats despawned with my ship at about 200 hull. I wanted to cry. My baby survived! I burned to the exit hole and flew my smoldering ship to the nearest repair facility, hands shaking all the way. Our corax reshipped to a caracal, and I hopped in a mammoth and we flew our POS in. Everything was quiet. We still hadn't seen any players at this point, only a POS on our dscan, but we weren't sure if it was active or not. We never checked. After everything was anchored, I took a few trips back and forth to get all the stuff we needed in, and I ended up buying small ammo before finding out you need medium ammo for small guns, so I had to go back again. Finally, we had our POS fully setup! Now it was time to rat. This was a C3 hole, and it took us about 3 hours to clear one site, after numerous warp-outs and repairs (myrmidon fitted remote armor reps to help support us, but his cap lasted about 8 seconds) we finally got one site cleared, and make about 15 million isk for our troubles, if I recall correctly. It was late so we called it a night. Woke up early the next day and our scanning caracal started looking for more sites to run, and this is where it all fell apart.. He was scanning outside the POS shields for some reason (he thought he couldn't do it inside so he flew out about 50km and did it there. As he's doing this, i'm sitting in the shields just moving things around, when a hostile ship warps right on top of him and blows him up in seconds. Along with our only set of scanning equipment. Now, this hostile ship (a deimos, I think) tries to blow up our POS guns, but I slowboat right on out of our shields and tear him a new one. Sadly my ship was not fitted with a warp scrambler of any type so he warped away in structure while I was still on shields. Couple minutes later, he's back, and shooting our guns. Again. I fly out to beat him up again, when suddenly, a loki, prophecy, and a harbinger warp on me. I turn around and run for the POS shields, but their webs slowed me just enough and I died with half of my ship in the shields. (killmail: https://zkillboard.com/kill/37814267/) Now, we were trapped inside this wormhole because we lost our scanning ship and the wormhole collapsed overnight. We had to self-destruct and leave our POS behind. My friends decided this was enough EVE and quit soon afterwords, which saddened me greatly. I've moved on but it still haunts me since there was so many things we could have done better to keep this from happening. Always bring spare scanning equipment, kids. Thanks for reading my story, learn from my mistakes, and fly safe!

~Kiokiba Eriker

TL;DR: Group of four want to live in a wormhole, lose scanning equipment and have to self-destruct.

“Hey Jeff! Pass me another beer will ya? All this rock chewing is making me thirsty”, Carl said. Jeff looked over to his Captain Carl, “Sorry sir the reserves have run dry, we’ve been mining for ages and I can’t even remember our last break.” The two pilots had recently saved up enough money to purchase one of ORE’s newest exhumer class vessels, “The Hulk”. It was said that this new ship was to have a mining yield not thought possible for a single craft. So Jeff and Carl sprung at the chance to get their hands on one the moment it was put up in a nearby market. They had to pay top dollar but in their eyes it was worth every last ISK spent. These days, all of the trade routes to Jita 4-4 we’re filled to the brim with pirates and other low life scum, so travel was very difficult for the non-wealthy but now they were going to be rich; it was going to be nothing but champagne and exotic dancers from here on out.

“Orca Command is saying that they keep getting weird readings on D-Scan”, Jeff said, pulling his headset off one ear. Carl looked over to Jeff, “It’s probably just more salvaging ships looking for scraps. They’re all over the place out here. Command is always a little dodgy during these ops because the CEO always jumps down their throats when he catches them asleep at the helm. Anyways, it’s High-Sec in a 0.7 no less, what is there to worry about?” Jeff thought for a moment, “Yeah… you’re right. I’ll go check down below for some more brew. Be back in a few.”

With Jeff exiting the bridge, Carl looked back to his control panel. The screen which showed his Strip Miners’ productivity beeped, announcing another cycle had completed. He glanced over to the Cargo Hold menu and touched the “Ore Bay” section. The bay was almost full; he’d have to jettison it for Orca to pick up soon. His new Hulk was definitely king in yield but man it was bothersome to have to keep watching the ore bay. In their last mining ship, Carl and Jeff would just turn on the Strip Miners and search the web but it would all be worth it because this ship was going to put them on the map. Carl leaned back and glanced out the port side view pane. Space was magnificent, endless and just chock full of possibilities. He stared out past the many mining ships of the rest of his fleet. Gazing at the suns of distant systems he’d always dreamt of traveling to, Carl could appreciate the beauty that the stars emanated but he couldn’t help but feel regret for not being more aggressive in life. He’d just figured he was only cut out to mine. It was an easy living, a safe one and well at the moment it was what he was good at. Besides he still had corp loans to pay off. So what other choice did he have? He closed his eyes and imagined the highly sophisticated life of the Amarr Socialites and how soon he would join them at their fancy parties. Now, it was only a matter of time.

***

Loyalanon strode proudly towards his Alliance Issue Catalyst. He’d received urgent reports from the top brass that CODE scouts in a nearby system had acquired targets. Settling into his pod, the neural interface cables connected throughout his body. Once again capsuleer and ship were one. Preparing to undock, he checked the most recent maintenance reports on his blasters and scanned over his ammo gauges. After running his pre-flight checks he opened his fleet comms to his Code brethren, awaiting his orders. “Listen up! Our scouts have sent word… there are reports of a large fleet engaging in illegal mining operations out in The Forge. It’s a system known as Silen and they’re in a belt orbiting Planet 5. Just over 4 jumps from our current location, this trip should be a short one BUT REST ASSURED GENTLEMEN, any trip regardless of length is worthwhile, so long as we’re spreading the word of James. AS I SPEAK these heretics BLASPHEME the ways of The Conference Elite and WOULD SPIT on the holy New Halaima Code of Conduct AND AS SUCH, WE WILL, bring the light of our savior to these few that have been left in the darkness. THEY WILL assimilate themselves into the shepherd’s flock OR SUFFER THE FATE OF THE BETRAYER! They have not been honored by the presence of our enforcement, AS THEY FEEL, our reach is not sufficient. Well I can assure you all that time is the false ally of all those found mining outside of our embrace because NOTHING AND NO ONE IS MORE ETERNAL AND EVERLASTING THAN THE CODE AND IT’S AGENTS! BROTHERS, run your pre-flight ammo and system checks. We undock in 2 minutes.”

***

“Orca Command to Hulk 7, you need to jettison your ore. I have not seen a can from your ship in over an hour and I am noting this in the contribution log. IT WILL affect your payout if it happens again!” Carl shook his head trying to ward off the fatigue that came from mining too long. The voice bellowing through the communication speakers on his desk had woken him, he’d fallen asleep. “Mining is so god damn boring. Where the hell is Jeff with my beer? That guy can’t do anything by himself”, he thought. Pulling his Cargo Bay up on a nearby monitor, he gave the orders to jettison the ore that it housed. “This is Hulk 7, Veldspar away”, closing the comms line he fiddled with his Strip Miners and reset the cycle time. His shift in the belt was almost over. He almost felt robotic; he didn’t even have any god damned beer left. What was he supposed to do now? Carl rose from his seat at the helm and began walking out of bridge. He’d go find Jeff and when he did, he’d damn well better have something alcoholic in hand.

***

Sirens screamed, warnings flashed from the most recent directional scan’s readings and crew members scrambled in every direction aboard the Orca Command Ship. “OPEN AN ALL FLEET COMMS LINE! I WANT TO BE IN WARP WITHIN 30. ALIGN! ALIGN!” Barked the ship’s captain. “This is your CEO, we have hostiles inbound! REPEAT HOSTILES INBOUND, CLOSING AT 2 AU PER SECOND. ALIGN TO THE NEAREST STATION!” In response the fleet turned in unison, akin to some strange space ballet. “Sir, the fleet is prepared for warp. All but Hulk 7 are aligned out.” said a nearby crew member. The captain slammed his fist on the command desk. Livid and close to destroying the open communications button, he shouted, “GOD DAMMIT CARL, THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRILL. MOVE THAT PIECE OF SHIT NOW!”

***

The forward scout had informed Loyalanon that their presence in system was known and that the fleet of mining heretics was scrambling to make warp. He’d been given the command to uncloak his Machariel and at all costs and ensure the command ship was unable to leave. He didn’t even think twice, his faith in the Code was unshakable and he knew what had been asked of him. He set a collision course with the fat greedy bitch, who was now, so plump full of ore. Thrusters exploded to life and giant plumes of exhaust flames erupted from them. At acceleratingly horrific speeds the Machariel was sent screaming towards it’s target. With one final permit scan, he confirmed in the Code Database that all of the ships that comprised this mining fleet were indeed unlicensed and so he pushed his ship to it’s limit. “OVERLOAD THE FRONT SHIELDS, ALL POWER TO THE FRONT SHIELDS! KILL THE ENGINES!”, he shouted. Having burnt out his micro warp drive, the ship fell silent as it’s engines disengaged and it careened towards it’s prey. The comm’s line crackled to life as his CEO advised the fleet that there was but 30 seconds remaining until they were on grid, “All guns should be set to overheat and all safeties set to red. Our primary target is the Orca, secondary on anything within range. Godspeed.” To that the comms erupted with the chants of the anxious code enforcers, “315! 315! 315!”

***

Carl and Jeff came back to a control room consumed by chaos. Confusion clutched both pilots as deafening warnings blared through every speaker. Every screen demanded their attention, all trying to force their eyes towards the imminent threat that was inbound. Frantically they began clearing the messages and looked to the fleet window. Their corp members had all aligned out of the belt and must have been for some time because they were 10km off their port. Time began to slow as the pair watched in horror as a large ship collided with Orca Command, subsequently sending the gigantic ships as well as a good portion of the fleet soaring in random directions. Immediately the ships unaffected by the ordeal grabbed warp and left grid. The bumped ships immediately scrambled to realign but all around tiny explosions began to herald the arrival of the catalyst fleet exiting warp and landing on grid. A hostile fleet of roughly 20 now shared the field.

The talons of helplessness clutched the souls of the pair and they could do nothing but watch as the first volleys rang out. Shields and armor plates were striped in an instant as the shots struck true, sending the targeted ships into structure. All communication lines suddenly came to life with the death throes of their corp mates. Grown men brought to childish whimpers died to projectiles as entire decks had transformed into utter madness as the air became congested with deadly shrapnel. The Command ship’s shields began to lose shimmer as they overloaded from the damage they’d been mitigating. No longer able to withstand the onslaught, massive holes were punched into the ship’s hull and the even less fortunate were met by space’s cold, airless bosom. No longer able to withstand the relentless assault, the engines went critical and the ship was consumed by a massive blast that sent scrap metal, corpses and defeat flying in all directions. All that remained of the once proud command ship, was the fireball birthed by it’s destruction.

“BRACE FOR IMPACT! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THAT BULKHEAD.” yelled Carl. With only moments to react, the two men grabbed ahold of nearby rails. The Hulk rocked violently as the first pieces of debris struck home. The ship’s shield warnings wailed as the impacts came wave after wave. Then it was over, the shields complained of severe damage but they had held.

Terrified and shell shocked the two risked a look out of the view ports. With no survivors, the asteroid belt had forcefully mutated into a graveyard for the industrial corporation. The wrecks of their fallen comrades were now metal coffins and tombstones signifying the final resting place of the thousands that had fallen.Having wrecked anything within range, the hostile fleet now turned to engage the overwhelming force that was the Concord Emergency Response Team. Carl and Jeff watched in awe as the Concord Commander spearheaded the assault, brawling it’s way through the fleet, terminating each ship one by one and both instantly found their new calling. With the fires of vengeance burning in their hearts, they swore revenge.

***

Sparks flared, fire erupted and raw metal was thrown in all directions. The Concord Police Force was bringing down Loyalanon’s ship all around him. Wrenching his emergency eject lever he had time for one last thought, “Should've bought a permit!”

“For the hundredth time yes!” Shark snapped back, “They are the only other people in local, there is no logi on the other side of any of the gates and no other corp members within 10 jumps. Now are you ready for the warp formula or not?”

“Ok sorry, sorry, I’m just a little stressed. This is nothing like Nullsec, I have a billion ISK plugged into my skull, this is my most expensive Proteus to date and this guy supposedly just wants to serve us 4 Navy Battlecruisers for dinner? I have this nagging feeling that he has something up his sleeve and if shit hits the fan you can’t do anything to help.”

“Look its 2 Brutixes a Harbinger and a Hurricane, all military, you and Cyran can do this. Now, what are your orders?”

Motoko took a moment to assess the situation. The targets knew her combat history as well as Cyran’s and were openly challenging us to a fight in something that didn’t have much of a chance of winning. Why would they do this? Was there neutral logi sitting in system somewhere or a backup fleet 2 jumps out? There was just too much about this that didn’t seem right.

“Moto make a decision,” Cyran said calmly. “You wait too long and we lose them.”

Motoko took a deep breath. “Ok here is what we are going to do. Cyran, you warp in first. Shark, I want you to give him a close warp in so it seems like you screwed up. Cyran point the Harby, primary it and burn away form them putting them between the entry gate and you. The harby is most likely a longer range ship as is the ‘Cane, they won’t worry about you pulling range, let the Brutixes chase you down but keep at least 10k between them and you. When you have them spread apart enough I’ll warp on you at 5k and wreck the Brutes first. While I am killing them you burn back, try to finish off the harby and make sure that ‘cane doesn’t get away, then it’s just a matter of cleaning up.”

“What if others show up?”

“Simple, we kill them too. Shark, are you in position?”

“Moto I’m always in position.”

“Good, Cyran jump, Shark, standby to warp him.”

“Alright I’ve landed.”

“Sending warp formula.”

“In warp.”

“Warping out, decloaking, links up.”

Tense seconds pass, Motoko was feeling that surge of energy she always got when entering combat coupled with uncertainty of not being able to see what was going on. Not having any control, hoping Shark did good recon and no one else was coming. From here on out it was up to Cyran to do his part and let her know when to come in, she hoped everything went as planned and waited.

“Moto, jump jump, warp 5k Cyran.”

Motoko lined up her ship with the gate, accelerated into it and shut down her navigation and scanning systems in preparation for the jump gate to take control. The gate flashed sucking her ship in, then nothing. It was always a weird feeling jumping into another system, even more so when you have that adrenaline rush going, the gate pulls you in and you expect a feeling of acceleration but its not there, you weigh nothing, you feel nothing, even the artificial gravity of your ship has no effect on you while in jump. Clouds of dust blur around you and you feel as if you are in a tunnel, then all of a sudden it clears.

Motoko struggled to push away the jump fatigue and get everything online as fast as she could. She got her ship moving to break cloak, locked onto Cyran’s fleet beacon and accelerated into warp.

Everything was perfect.

Cyran followed the engagement plan flawlessly, allowing her to drop out of warp right on top of the two Brutes. It was go time.

She pulled around locking on to both Brutixes and accelerated towards one, locking him down and going to work melting his shields. Luckily they were firmly holding on the the bait. Cyran had the better tank but was playing the role of the tankless kiter enticing them to focus on him leaving Motoko to do her work with her superior firepower. They succumbed to her guns in short order.

“Cyran, Brutes down, Harby on short point, transfer long point to the ‘Cane.”

“Roger, ‘Cane on long point, lets send them home.”

...

“See Moto, I said you two could handle it.” Shark prodded as she landed on grid to help with cleaning up the wrecks.

“You’ve never steered me wrong Shark. Now get out there and find us more fights.”

“AYE AYE MA’AM”

“Smartass.” Moto replied just before shutting her comms off to wind down from the after battle jitters. Highsec Wardeccing was proving to be fun.

So, I've been mostly single for some time now, and just recently I started seriously seeing a girl. This is relevant because up until we became serious I never really gave much thought to explaining or defending my nightly activities of playing EVE and being on comms with friends. It's just what I do, and I'll be honest that most of the time I'm a half naked lump sitting on my office chair whose seat pad is full to the brim of fart dust. Now I'm suddenly dating someone and I find myself wondering... "Is it OK if I play EVE right now?"

This self-questioning inevitably spirals onward because why would I ever deny myself something that I enjoy because of another person. I enjoy this person, so shouldn't they enjoy that I enjoy what I enjoy? Maybe there's something she enjoys that she's not enjoying because she's worried that I wont understand her joy. Clearly, this becomes exhausting and before long I'm too tired to do much else and we do other things.

I love this girl. She's a good one. We have fun, and I don't resent her at all for the obvious disruption in my EVE schedule that's taken place. Truth is I still play, but when she goes to sleep. Nothing is lost. But what's important to me is really just getting it out there that there's something else that I spend ample time with.

So, this is easy, right? Just tell her. But if I tell her, when do I tell her? During lunch? Dinner is for talking about your day, complaining about your job and talking about spaceships, right? No, that doesn't feel right. Lunch maybe sounds better. But we both work, so lunch wont work. Maybe in the morning when we wake up and we're laying in bed. That's perfect. She's comfortable, she's rested and at 6:30 in the morning there's not much sun light coming in through the blinds to cast distracting shadows on the wall while I'm talking about spaceships. But that just might be too early, I thought.

Then I had an idea to plan a date night completely revolving around the idea of just casually bringing up EVE to her at some perfect point. I'd set the kitchen counter all nice with our plastic cutlery and paper plates that do match. I'd put on some music. She'd absolutely love her favorite dish that I'd make for dinner. I'd wash and wear my one polo shirt that I own, and then nothing says I love you and want to share spaceships with you like picking fresh flowers from your neighbor's garden.

Aftewards, I could finally explain to her about EVE. It'd be the perfect time. I'd be wearing my polo shirt, and I could sit there and talk about things like wormhole effects, hero tackling and doom portals. Surely I would be able to make EVE entertaining that she would ask questions, and want to go deeper than what I would first provide her which would just be the mere surface.

Why yes love, that's a fantastic question regarding stacking penalties, and I happen to have the answer for you right here.

Maybe I could have a PowerPoint on stand-by in case the explanation got really intense having unearthed a dormant and unrealized thirst for spaceships from within her. It wouldn't have to be a big PowerPoint. How could I forgive myself if I was not prepared to answer her questions?

Alas, day turned to night, week became weeks and still EVE and I just stayed to ourselves. I just kind of gave up on figuring out when to explain to the girl that I love about the girl that I love. I continued to just play late at night when she went to sleep. It never bothers her, and she never comes out to ask me to come to bed. She sees me happy, and that's enough for her. Some people just don't need to know about spaceships.

Then one particular Spring night (last night) we were relaxing on the couch watching some Netflix, probably Arrested Development, when she decided to get a bit snuggly. She gets a bit closer and puts her hand on my chest. Then the hand starts lowering. And then it lowers some more. That's right, you know exactly where this is going. So, I just saved her some time and gave her the wireless mouse I was holding in my lap so she could pick something else to watch.

But she didn't want the mouse. No, what she wanted was my penis.

Alpha male status: ON

So, I proceed to just do nasty things to her. Things that you do when you're exhausted, have 2 Angry Orchards in you, and you're freshly showered, relaxing on a big comfy couch in a big pair of sweatpants. I do love my couch, and my sweatpants. I digress, after much contorting and calculating she finds herself on my lap like she's being spanked, but you see I'm not spanking her. No, I'm just finger fucking her to death. She's screaming. The dog's taken cover under my desk, there are books falling off my desk and I'm pretty sure I could hear my neighbor's say 'What the fuck..' through the walls. Just then, before my shoulder seems to dislocate, she proceeds to expel a massive sliver of shit into the palm of my hand. It was like shaking your grandfather's hand when you see him for the holidays and he slips you a 5 dollar bill then winks at you. This was no 5 dollar bill. It was a healthy sized flattened turd in my hand.

I immediately jump up, jump over the couch and run right to the bathroom. All the meanwhile I can hear the little lady screaming from the living room floor, "OMG WHAT DID I DO! WHAT IS IT! WHAT HAPPENED!" No time to respond. No air to respond. I put my hand in the toilet and do a 1-scrape with the other hand and get the turd right into the toilet. I immediately regret the 1-scrape with the other hand and proceed to turn on the shower.

"OMG WHAT HAPPENED! DID I DO WHAT I THINK I DID!"

Yes, my love. You just went 2 on my hand. She was mortified. She was in tears. And I couldn't hold her, laugh about it and reassure her enough to make her feel OK with making a 2 in my hands. I was laughing my ass off, and I just keept saying, "Awww you're going to be fine." She was crushed. She was embarrassed. She was vulnerable. She.. was possibly begging for anything to take her mind off of what just happened. Then I realized...

THIS IS THE TIME!

And it was perfect. We went back out to the living room and I jumped on my computer and I had her full attention while I talked all about EVE to her and showed her the things that I do. I could tell she was just happy to see that I was perfectly alright with what just happened that I could so easily move on to spaceships. I was happy to finally share EVE with her. She asked questions, and I felt a weight off my chest.

]]>Thu, 15 May 2014 05:02:46 +0000http://sett.com/podborn/uid/205017The Sandbox and You: The New Player Experiencehttp://sett.com/podborn/the-sandbox-and-you-the-new-player-experience
"It's amazing to see what kind of stuff people come up [with] if you give them an empty book titled 'New Eden' and tell them to write something into it." - NightlinerSGS

EVE has a pretty low player retention. It seems very few players make it past the first few months, but for many, once that hurdle is made, EVE becomes an experience that never ends. Obviously veterans tend to see this, and we often attribute it to the Sandbox.

A new player in EVE is ushered in under Aura’s protective arms and they start to learn the mechanics. Most of which are kind of ‘meh’ at best when you don’t know what all is happening. Fitting ships, buying things, flying around seems pretty tedious when you’re just being ushered forward. Many suggest the tutorial and PVE stuff needs to be more involved to counter this. While this could help, making the PVE more engaging won’t ever require that the pilot enters the sandbox, as this is primarily something that comes from different forms of PVP more than anything else.

So, as it stands, the games new player experience is entirely separated from the sandbox. The sandbox is unknown to the majority of new players. They go through tutorials, and maybe some career agents, which are just more specific tutorials. Some new players don’t even realize they are in the “real game” already.

A little later, this newbro will be out mining, or missioning, or hauling some things. People have likely told him he’s not ready to do certain things. That he needs to wait to get more SP. Maybe he’s joined a corporation, but the Sandbox still hasn’t been introduced. The sandbox normally comes to him when he first gets ganked. Or his mining ship bumped. Or his corp wardec. How will the newbro respond to this? He’ll probably run. This isn’t the same game he’s been experiencing, so it feels foreign and unknown.

It’s hard to say how the game itself could fix this. Even if Aura gave you all the steps to entering the sandbox, many newbros wouldn’t even read it anyway. Many never figure out why there are no asteroids in the starter systems. A large number of players ask common questions that are covered in the tutorial. Then they tell you they skipped all that. Obviously the information the game gives falls on deaf ears.

The best way we can get newbros into the sandbox is by other players giving good advice. The problem is the people avoiding the sandbox are normally also the people giving the most advice, and most of it is bad.

So here are my tips for diving headfirst into the EVE sandbox:

1. Get a Ship

I don’t care what kind of ship, but I’d suggest multiple t1 frigates. They’re cheap, agile, and don’t take much SP to fly well. Your ship is another tool in this game, so don’t get too attached, but pick something you enjoy. If you can’t buy any t1 frigates, don’t do what many suggest and mine or mission until you can get some. You’ll likely get caught in an escalating loop.

Instead, talk in local. Go to a system, preferably a heavily populated one (though you may want to avoid Jita) and ask in local. Say, “I’m a newbro and I want to get some frigates so I can explore the sandbox.” It may take a few tries, but eventually some bittervet that sees something cute in you will give you a donation. Maybe some ISK, or maybe even some fitted frigates for you. Remember their name. They’ll come into play later.

2. Go Somewhere

I don’t really care where, but I highly suggest lowsec, nullsec, or, if you’re a little ahead of the game, w-space. Go see the stars. Warp to belts (at range). Warp to things on your overview (at range). Warp to combat sites (at range). Go see things and explore.

3. Meet People

Wherever you go, start talking to people. Most people aren’t shy about talking in local (except for those W-space guys) and, despite what highsec bears will tell you, most people in this game are really nice. Ask them questions about some of the things you saw in step 2. “What’s this cyno thing?” “What’s a ghost site?” “Why did you kill me?” You can ask a lot of this in the rookie chat, and while much of it will be helpful, they won’t as often lead to much. Many of the people you meet WILL try to kill you. And by “try” I mostly mean “will succeed.” I told you to buy multiple ships, remember? So it’s nothing to worry about.

Open a chat with the person that killed you. Talk to him. If you’re lucky he’ll give you more isk for more t1 frigates (no mining required) but most likely he’ll give you advice. How he managed to kill you and how you should have fit your ship will likely be what he talks about. He may even invite you to a public chat channel where you can get connected to more helpful people.

This almost doesn’t need to be a point, as you’ll probably have been doing loads of this already, but I just want to emphasize it. This isn’t just about losing ships, getting contacts, making ISK or trying to kill people. This is about learning and experiencing. Chances are you now know more about the ship you were flying than you ever cared to, and you’ve learned about things like D-scan, tackle, and transversal. If you haven’t learned anything, start all over and ask more questions this time through!

5. Tell Your Story

This whole time you’ve been a part of the sandbox. You’ve gone to dangerous places and maybe even seen how empty and safe nullsec can be. You’ve engaged in player created content and interacted with the true residents of New Eden. Now it’s time to expand the sandbox. Remember the guy that gave you some isk and a ship to start this adventure? Send him a message telling him what happened to you. He’s going to be happy to see it. Go on reddit and tell them your story. Post it here on Pod Born. Hopefully some other newbro sees it and follows in your footsteps.

The local asteroid belts of Onnamon and other Black Rise systems kept my newly fitted covetor busy between station docks. I knew very little about my ships controls, the space I was in, or the people I was flying with, but it was enough to get by. I kept hearing them talking of hull configurations I had never heard of. Tech this and tech that. I spent most of my evenings after a good mineral haul, browsing station databases, keeping brushed up on terminology.

"Wormhole space," they said.

"Many riches to be had," they said.

Knowing very little of wormholes and their risk or reward, it ultimately would lead to my first death in since I gained my space legs.

Source: https://wiki.eveonline.com/wikiEN

Two weeks; the time it took to find our new home. Our leader (I will just refer to him as captain) ruthlessly lead the way in the long search for the right place. From my understanding we wanted a place that would support our current 5-8 man group along with an allowance for expansion if needed.

Finally we found one. Captain sent out a ping through our corporate communications. Pack up, load up, we are headed out tonight. I was prepping for this for weeks. Had my mining hull, and two battle-cruiser class hulls. An Amarrian Harbinger model, and a Caldari Drake. I had little training in either but I was confident it would last me long enough to learn better systems and purchase new hulls further down the road.

Set up was fast. My first time seeing a control tower was awe. This was why I came to space. Captain quickly ordered where the guns would be placed in orbit around our tower and began laying out our general logistics policy's.

First people on each day scan down our anomalies and cosmic signatures. Document them and leave the documentation in the corporate hangars so the sleepers can be fought once everyone is ready each day.

Place "warp bubbles" on each wormhole exit we find and document where it leads.

The weeks that followed found myself learning (stumbling) about new ores I had never seen, and the strength of the sleeper empire. Their name is very contradictory to how they fight. My drake hull was put to it's limits along with the rest of the crew at times, but I'd be damned if I didn't tell you it was fun.

I find myself one evening waking and my ship warping back to our tower from a non-disclosed location while I was asleep. Expecting to see a large pocket of blue wrap around me as my ship speeds to location, I instead find myself nowhere. In dead space. Tower gone.

Local was the only place to go to at this point. With no experience in scanning, and lacking the equipment to do so, I was stuck.

"Anyone there?"

I was such a naive pilot then. Such an "eve virgin". I did get a response. They knew I was in an auguror class hull. I said my corp has left me in this wormhole and I have no way out.

"We can help you get back home, join my fleet and you can warp to me. I am at an exit," the stranger said.

The less smarter half of me agreed, and I began my warp. On the way it started to hit me. Why did we move out. Why am I willingly warping to this stranger? It was too late. A foreign control tower with guns began locking me up nearly immediately. I ejected out of my ship with my pod in-tact only to be locked and held there again....

"Have a fun trip!" in local they said.

The following are two transmissions I received over the 2 hours following the events.

From the killer...

2011.05.27 16:25

Express train.

From: -------------To: -------------Thank you for travelling express from our wormhole. We would appreciate it if you would take a minute to tell us how you feel about our service and if you feel we need to improve on anything. Thank you for your time,

From my corp mate...

2011.05.27 17:12

Express train.

From: -------------To: -------------Hey man. We had to move out of the wormhole last night. I kept my scanning equipment and clone here so I can help you get out. Let me know when you are around or free for me to get you and your ship out. Cheers,

It would not be the last time I feel the sudden filling of my lungs with oxygen after waking in my newest clone.

It's 03:00 Eve time. All's quiet in Auner until a gang of Black Watch Syndicate frigates barge into the system, with their muffled rap music playing and unnecessary chrome spinny bits on their thrusters. An executioner, two tormentors, and a punisher. The latter three go loiter at the local novice outpost, and the executioner hangs out around the small. I warp in with a Talwar in hopes that they might pick a fight that I can win.

Twigsta > come play, frigates. :)

They do not. The executioner runs away. A short while later, the two tormentors and punisher have moved on to a medium, likely with the intent of spray painting the beacon with their tag. Not on my watch. I break out the Caracal and send it flying through the gate. They've all fled in such a hurry that one of the tormentors has left its drones behind. Two Hobgoblin IIs lie abandoned in space. A paltry prize for my patience.

Twigsta > awww, no 4v1?Twigsta > you even forgot your drones!Twigsta > <loc><url=showinfo:2456>Hobgoblin II</url>Stalkerish > was kind of hoping to get those backTwigsta > hmm. Perhaps if you paid me to leave you folks alone. :)Stalkerish > well thats no fun...Reginald Sakakibara > thanks for leaving the small xDTwigsta > np. xDTwigsta > can't be everywhere, sadly!Twigsta > Tell you what! I'll leave the drones here in a can. You can try to take them if you want.Stalkerish > how about if you promise to give me 5 mil if i get them

No. No that won't do. Sure, I could twist the rules to my benefit and do some trickery, but my heart isn't into it today. I slink back to Thukker, two Hobgoblin IIs richer, and browse youtube. A few videos later, I check local again. A new message pops up! We proceeded to discuss tissue paper.

Reginald Sakakibara > <url=showinfo:1380//672064586>Twigsta</url> where are the drones?Twigsta > My terms were not met!Twigsta > I took them to a good home.Stalkerish > but i came for them!Stalkerish > NOOOO MY BABIESTwigsta > D-did you have kleenex on hand?Stalkerish > yea, but not for tearsTwigsta > huehueReginald Sakakibara > Kleenex* it's a brandReginald Sakakibara > "tissue" would be the itemReginald Sakakibara > This is a big problem for that companyReginald Sakakibara > it's called trademark dilutionTwigsta > I disregard your capitalizations and substitute them with my own letters!Twigsta > also, accept no tissue paper substitutes.

Wait, if they know there's no drones... are they at the medium? I undock once more. Only the medium is left, and they're all there -- plus a navy slicer! Five frigates against one Caracal -- not the best odds against a ship that's never seen real solo combat, but I wanted a fight. I decide to try once more, hurling my Caracal into the plex, bellowing the name of the patron saint of rushing into bad situations.

Twigsta > LEEROOOOOOOOOY

I land. They're not running away! Target, target, target! By the time I manage any locks, they've got me down to half shield. I quickly throw point, webs, light missiles, and drones at the navy slicer. It doesn't last ten seconds. I move onto the executioner. It too dies in short order. My first large ancillary shield booster is now empty and reloading, and I'm dipping into armor. I hit the second large ancillary booster and overload it as I turn my attention the Punisher. Wrong move.

The Punisher proved to be the toughest of the bunch, as I should have planned for. By the time I got it into half armor, my shields were at a quarter, my armor at half, and both ancillaries were reloading. Things looked grim. I fired my last light missile volley and watched, hoping that my ancillary would reload in time. I watched the meters go red. Shields - empty. Armor - gone. Hull - 75%. 50%. 25%. GFs began to appear in local. My Warrior IIs had brought the Punisher down to a sliver of hull. My first large ancillary and light missile launcher switched icons as the punisher exploded. Spewing flames and overloading everything, my Caracal went after the Tormentors with renewed vengeance and a structural integrity that was worrisome even to a Minmatar used to flying ships held together by rust and duct tape. The tormentors both fell shortly afterwards, their lasers no match for my ancillary's shield boosting.

Introduce me. I have tried this game before, twice to be precise. I have blasted through the 14 day trial, and I just fell in love with this game. Because of "reasons", I can't ever seem to pay for the game, which is why I do the trial, let it expire, and come back a few months later when I have the need to play again.

Until recently, I had no idea that you could pay for the game with ISK. After asking around in rookie help on the last few days of my 14 day trial, I was sent a chat invite by another rookie. As it turns out, this "rookie" was no rookie at all! He has several accounts, and was starting up yet another one.

I asked if he paid for all of his accounts with dollars, and he said that the game paid for them. We talked a lot about ways for a trial to make enough money to plex himself to glory.

Forward a few days. I convinced 2 of my friends to come and try the game with me. I got in touch with this veteran player, and he was kind enough to extend 3 extended trials. We chose to go with Gallente, because they seem to be very versatile for starting toons, not to mention the idea of Drones sounds awesome. After we got or characters, I contacted him yet again. The first thing he told us to do was to finish the Military and Advanced Military Tutorials, and follow with the exploration tutorial. Then, he told us to make a corporation, and set it to 0% tax, that way, all of the ISK we generate remains in our wallets. We were warned about “awoxers” and told to be careful if we decided to recruit, but I think we are not going to go with that route for now.

The plan is to explore hisec, run Data and Combat sites, and run Class 1 Wormhole anomalies for ISK. To me, this plan sounds easy enough, because I have no idea what either of these things are, but hey. This vet just told me to do it, and that’s what I’m going to do. Off to Google, and my oh my. Turns out that Class 1 Wormholes need to be done in a Battlecruiser sized ship. I check the market for any Battlecruiser. Each one of them is worth 70 million ISK or there about, and they can’t be trained in a trial account. Once I bring this issue to his attention, he linked, almost immediately two fits for two ships. An Algos and a Vexor. We were given 10 million isk each, and told to start off with the Algos:

[Algos, Algos]

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Small I-a Polarized Armor Regenerator

Limited 1MN Afterburner I

X5 Prototype Engine Enervator

[empty med slot]

150mm Compressed Coil Gun I, Antimatter Charge S

150mm Compressed Coil Gun I, Antimatter Charge S

150mm Compressed Coil Gun I, Antimatter Charge S

150mm Compressed Coil Gun I, Antimatter Charge S

150mm Compressed Coil Gun I, Antimatter Charge S

[empty high slot]

Small Capacitor Control Circuit I

Small Processor Overclocking Unit I

Small Ancillary Current Router I

Our Benefactor also instructed us to download EveMon, and he sent me an e-mail with a skill plan. The skill plan is meant for the Vexor, and it will take roughly 17 days to complete. He said, and I quote “Your Vexor is not meant to fight solo. Think of it as 1/3rd of a ship. You need the other 2/3rd in order for it to work”. And here is why (for you, vets).

[Vexor, C1/C2 Vexor]

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I

Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I

Beta Reactor Control: Diagnostic System I

Drone Damage Amplifier I

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Large F-S9 Regolith Shield Induction

Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I

Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster

Medium S95a Remote Shield Booster

Large 'Regard' Remote Capacitor Transmitter

Core Probe Launcher I, Sisters Core Scanner Probe

Medium Egress Port Maximizer I

Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I

Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I

Hammerhead II x5

Hobgoblin II x5

Salvage Drone I x5

Hobgoblin II x5

We have no idea what any of this means, or how would a ship with no weapons deal any damage. Or why does it have Remote Shield Boosters instead of railguns like the Algos. A point that was later clarified. “The idea is: Korhel will send his capacitor to Necuratul. Necuratul will send his Capacitor to Razanden, and Razanden to Korhel. This is known as a cap chain. You have to be within 6km from each other, so the best idea is to split the work load. For example, Nec and Raz both approach Korhel, and Korhel takes care of moving his ship so as to keep within then drone control range of your ships. Nec will tag targets, so that all 3 of you focus your firepower on the same target, that way you can take them out faster, and Raz will keep his D-scan window up and running, to prevent baddies from coming and killing you. When Kor starts getting shot, Nec and Raz will put One shield repper on Kor. If the damage is too high, Nec will put his 2nd shield repper on Kor, until his capacitor alarm goes off. At that point, he will turn it off, and Raz will get his 2nd on Kor. If the damage is so high that Kor is still dying with all 3 reppers on him, then you need to put all 4 on him and gauge if he can survive while you take the DPS out, or if you need to cut your losses and warp off. This is spider tanking.”

We were then told that, as soon as we could fly the ships, and fit all of the modules, to hop on them and start getting used to spider tanking by running hisec missions. That is the plan.

A day or so later, we got our Algoses fit, and we started running Security missions. We chose the Federation Navy, and so we started our grind.

Our Algos were expensive, but mighty. Not a single mission gave us any kind of trouble. We learned that, in order to use all drones, you need to train Drones V, which takes about 4 and a half days. Seeing as to how our accounts are a few days old at this point, we decided to stick as a group and run them. Safety in numbers and all.

One afternoon I come online and Raz said something about auto denying duels. I asked why, and as it turns out, he accepted a duel and had lost his Algos. Welp…

We limped on a bit, Raz went back to his Catalyst he got from the tutorial, and thus carried on.

Forward a few days, and we are sitting at somewhere near 6 million. Our benefactor got in touch with us, and asked how we were doing. We gave him a quick retelling of what you have just read, and he asked us to meet him in a system, which was not too far off from where we were.

After we docked, we received a fleet invite. Once we joined, there he was, with another character already in fleet. He said “I’m going to take level 4 missions for you guys. The idea is simple, wait for me to get agro, warp in when I tell you to, warp out when I tell you to. As soon as you are in the same room as I am, fly AWAY from me, got it?” He told us to undock. We did. There was a purple Noctis, piloted by this silent player, and a purple battleship undocked. Select it, show info. Rattlesnake. Rattlesnake? *view market details* Wow, Rattlesnake. And he warped. About a minute later he called for us. We warped, and landed on an acceleration gate. The Rattlesnake soon warped away, and we were told to wait. About a minute later, we were told to activate the gate, and as soon as we landed, to turn around and burn away with our afterburners.

We activated the gate, and when we landed, I saw a wall of red NPC markers of all 3 sizes. I had only seen the big one once before, in a Tutorial mission. After I took the magnitude of NPCs on field in, I realized that they were all shooting at the Rattlesnake. There was quite a lot of incoming fire. It was then that I remembered that I had to turn around and burn away, and so I did. I changed my camera’s perspective to focus on the Rattlesnake, which just sat there. I asked for a way to keep track of his HP without locking him, and he explained the process to add people to your watchlist. His shield readout was holding at a steady 80%. His drones were sitting still, but ships were still exploding at a very long range. About 20 minutes later, the Noctis warped in, when there were a few ships left, and started to pull wrecks towards itself. About 5 minutes later, there were no wrecks on field.

We were warped to the station we had come from; the Rattlesnake docked, and emerged. It left again, and the call came just after a minute or two. This time, as soon as we landed, we were told to burn away from the ship. This mission was different. No gate, and a single pocket of enemies with a stake-like tower in the middle. Two ships exploded, and about 20 more spawned. 4 ships exploded, and 40 more spawned. Every time a pair of ships blew up, more came. By my count, once all of the waves were triggered, there was upwards of 100 ships on field. I could be wrong, but they were certainly a whole lot. After a while, I noticed that the Rattlesnake’s shields were nearing 0%. I didn’t say anything.

The drones he had deployed were murdering everything. Just as I wondered what kind of DPS he was getting out of that ship, he broke the silence and said “I need you to align to the station and wait. If they lock you, you warp right away. Let me know when you are aligned” Now, here I am thinking “Is he going to warp away and hope we don’t get shot?” I told him we were aligned. He scooped his drones, and started moving. A few seconds later, he was clear across the field of NPCs. There was a light and a sound. It kind of looked like the Millennium Falcon entering Hyperspace. His drones came back out, and the carnage started all over. “Good, they didn’t switch targets.” What the hell, I want a Rattlesnake. That was probably the coolest things I’ve seen in EVE so far. After about 30 minutes or so, there were no NPCs left, and the Noctis came back again, vacuuming everything in its reach.

The last mission we did was far less impressive than the first two. It consisted of warping into a single pocket of enemies, taking them out, blowing up a station and saving a princess or something. Why would you blow up the station and pick up a princess out of a cargo container is beyond me, but whatever. Noctis came, Noctis left.

Our Rattlesnake pilot said he had raised enough money, and that he had to go back to his wormhole. He told us to check our wallets. I was sitting at a little over 40 million. I had close to 6 million before we started, so I got a bit over 34 million isk out of these 3 missions. With that money, we were told to go buy our Vexors and give them a go when we could fit them. We thanked him, and he left fleet.

We are about 8 hours away from fitting the Vexor, so we decided that buying the ship now and fitting it later would be a good idea. And so we did. It was kind of late, so I logged off, and went to bed.

The next day, I noticed, quite by mistake, that I had level 2 security missions open. I must’ve gotten a boost or something out of the level 4’s we had just run. I gathered the gang, and off we went in our Algos’. As it turns out, level 2 missions are much much harder than level 1’s, and thus we nearly lost our ships several times. We decided that the Vexors would be a good thing to try now, and so we went to get them fit.

We decided to go in our pods, so that we could keep the Algos in what we started calling “home”. We got the free Velator for docking with our pod, and I told the guys to reprocess it, because it’s useless.

“Uh oh” went Raz.

“Uh oh what” is the first thing to come out of my mouth.

“What is the name of the ship we came to get?” asked Raz. I know that tone. I know that damn tone.

“What did you do?” went Kor.

“I think I reprocessed the wrong ship” mumbled Raz. Yes he did. Indeed he did. 11 million down the drain because of a mistake. We told him to sell the ore he had just gotten. He got about 7 million back. Thankfully, he was able to buy it back right away and fit it, but I felt this earned him some sort of recognition. Now Raz bears the title of “Reprocesses perfectly good ships” within our corp.

Once our ships were fit, we ran a few level 2 missions while practicing our setup just as the Rattlesnake pilot had instructed. It worked. It worked too well. We let one of us sink way low in shields. Like, 2% left or something, before we engaged our remote reppers. His shields were restored almost instantly, well before our cap alarms went off. This fit works very well.

After a few level 2’s, we decided to try our luck with anomalies. We found a few combat sites, and not one of them gave us any trouble, except for an Angel Cartel DED complex. The first room was very easy to do. Halfway through the first room, we noticed a group of battlecruisers land on grid, and burn straight to the gate. Foolishly, we let them be, and didn’t bother to hurry, nor ditch the targets we were killing. We didn’t know that there was only one ship worth killing and looting. Once we got to the next room, there were about 20 cruisers and 20 frigates, and 1 wreck, which we later found out could drop hundreds of millions of ISK if you were lucky enough.

The cruisers engaged immediately, followed shortly by the frigates. Their damage was brutal, quickly putting our ships near the 60% shield mark. We were holding alright with just one repper from each ship, up until one of us screwed up and drifted out, thus breaking the cap chain. Kor was the one with all the agro at the time, and I was close enough to him, and with a full cap. I sent my cap transfer on him, as well as both of my shield reppers. In turn, he set his cap transfer on me, and with that, he was able to survive. Once Raz moved back in range, the agro switched to me. I killed both of my remote shield reppers, changed my energy transfer from Kor to Raz, and took it like a champ.

At this moment of calamity, I noticed that our 12 Hobgoblin I’s were not doing nearly enough damage to the frigates we intended to kill at first. I called for the fleet to change to Hammerheads instead, and we focused on cruisers, to try to reduce the incoming damage.

It worked, and we were able to easily tank the remaining frigates once we had gotten rid of the cruisers.

Sadly, we only made about 2-3 million isk out of all of that hard work, because someone decided it would be easier to blitz through and take the goods. Shame on them, but this is EVE, so live and learn.

I will continue to report our tales here, depending on the response we get from you guys. I apologize for not having any pictures to show, but I promise to take some from now on.

Alrighty guys, i'm not necessarily a new player (started my first character in november '07), but this character I started a mere 5 months ago (or so). Since I got back into EVE i've been trying to get a stable source of income under me, so I revert to my default money making mode which is missioning, looting, salvaging, and hauling my hard-earned rewards to Amarr once a month.

Now, i'm flying around in mostly Assault Frigates, Destroyers, and might get a cruiser soon, so my ceiling is limited to Level 3's right now. That being said, it takes quite a bit of time to make money, and i'm prone to squeezing every last bit of income out of my loot.

For the past month of doing level 3 missions, I've stored all of that loot in a single cargo container, stockpiling ISK-potential until a time I decide it's fit to clean house and move the cattle to market so to speak. This isn't as easy as loading up the hauler and hitting the bricks though. I run each meta level 3 and 4 item through a reprocessing program to figure out if it's worth more to melt it, or sell as is on the market. A cargo container takes about 4 hours of excel spread sheet tinkering until I get to where I've got a nice load of high efficiency ISK for travel. When it's all said and done I had something like 70 million worth of loot to unload. Not bad, should get me a nice bump to get me up to level 4's faster right?

SKIP TO HERE FOR THE GOOD PART IF YOU DON'T LIKE BUILD-UP YOU LAZY PRICK

So here I am, making the familiar journey from Hisoufad---> Youl ---> Amarr, not a worry in the world, and quite tired after my soul crushing data program foray. I jump into Amarr from Ashab, and something on my overview catches my eye. A Catalyst flown by a "Hannah Chase" has a strange color and symbol over it.... something red starred, not blinking.

Now. having not been very active in most corps, content to do as I will, this sight was foreign to me, but I knew what it had to be, and what it meant...

It meant that i'm in a minimally skilled, minimally fitted, fully loaded beast of slow-ass hauler Bestower, 15k away from gate and nowhere near an alignable destination, and this Catalyst was a member of a war decced corporation. I.e. my month of mission running and 4 hours of data plugging reward was at risk.

Naturally, I popped hard enough to catch the attention of /r/poppingLink and with that, I was left with no assets, and 20 mill ISK to my name (having lost two Sentinels and my AF recently).

Instead of soak in my misery, I insta-warp my pod straight to the Emperor Family Academy station and try to throw something together fast enough to catch the person rubbing their grubby hands all over my hard earned ISK. The only thing running through my mind was revenge, but fortunately I can still throw together a decent ship without EFT when blood is in the air. I buy a dragoon, throw on a buffer fit (remember that a catalyst is gallente, thus blaster fit, thus kin/therm) with a 400 plate, some resistance, and a heat sink, then a point and AB, 3 neuts + 3 t2 pulses with scorch as well as a flight of warrior II's.

Lo and behold, I get a summons for a private conversation from none other than my saboteur, and the first thing I think of is "No way this asshole is getting my tears".

All I hear on the other side of the comms is "I'm still at the gate if you want to try and get your stuff back :)"

...

Oh it's on.

I undock, warp to the gate, turn off my safety mid flight and look expectantly for the red target that stole my hopes and dreams, only to find that he bugger'd off. So I waited, and harassed him a little via the comms as much as I could... knowing full well this person had an alt and was probably looking at me as we speak, if not scanning my fit unbeknownst to myself (somehow).

Well, turns out the grubby handed blackguard was sifting through my loot safely back at station, but offered to meet me at planet 1 for a 1v1. I lost my loot, but w/e I want revenge. I undock (again) and warp to 100 of planet 1, and start burning in a random direction (who knows if this dude is honorable, he could have support waiting, and I certainly didn't want to warp in or be warped in upon without warning). To my surprise, the all too familiar red catalyst warps in alone, 110km away from myself, and I immediately start burning towards him, but off to maintain at least some radial. We exchange a couple "Good Lucks", with the distance from acting as a sort of engagement countdown. At 10km away all hell would break loose.

15k away I unleash my warrior II's from their bay, set to attack him, while breaking a hard tangential trajectory at 9km, unleash my neuts, point and scorch crystals and hold on. After two cycles of my neuts, his point disappears, and I knew I had him. It felt like an eternity but in actuality it would be lucky to have lasted 15 seconds. I was looking at his wreck by the end, and all I had was 20% damage to my armor buffer. Although I did lose a drone. This Link is a testament to my blind rage.

After the adrenaline settles, I succumb to the fact that I still don't have my loot back, and now I have to deal with it.

Well turns out that I was the first person from my corp to fight back this "oppressor", and he was thoroughly impressed. I was equally impressed that through all of this, there is still honor amongst pirates, and I didn't get blobbed into absolute bankruptcy. We exchange pleasantries, talk a while about corp dealings, and at the end of it, I got a portion of my loot back, and now i'm sitting with a shiny new Omen that still has that new car smell. A good night turned bad turned excellent. This game is awesome, even after 6 years.